I'd go with number one; after all isn't that one of the reasons the <img>
tag was made? and why wouldn't you make the alt (in your specific example)
"Smiling lady"?
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jared Smith
Sent: 21 June 2006 16:52
To: [email protected]
Subject: [WSG] Methods for decorative images
I'd like to get your opinions on methods for adding non-content
conveying
images. I'm talking about images that cannot be added as backgrounds to
existing page elements - things like 'smiling lady' images that are
placed
within the text flow and are used to provide visual enhancement to
content, but do not actually convey content.
http://webaim.org/community/
for an example.
As I see it, there are 3 options:
1. Use <img alt=""> and style it into position.
2. Add a span or div and then use inline styling to add the background
image, sizing, float, etc.
3. Add a span or div and provide the styling in your external CSS file.
#1 adds an extra non-semantic element to the page and if styles are
disabled, the image can disrupt the content flow. #2 and #3 also require
additional elements (and even worse, empty elements) be added to the
page.
#2 requires inline styling which makes it about the same as #1, but #3
requires that style definitions for one image on one page be loaded on
ALL
of the pages in the external CSS file. It seems that none of these work
very well. Right now, I'm tending to go with #2 as it's the easiest to
administer. Perhaps content:before or content:after would be a better
option, if it were supported.
So what do you do?
Jared
PS - there seems to be some Coldfusion permission errors with the
http://webstandardsgroup.org/ site.
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